The film industry has Oscar; the publisher industry has Maggie. Not tall, lean, and gold like her Academy counterpart, Maggie is short, plump, and see-though clear, but I think she’s gorgeous. I met her for the first time four years ago at the Western Publications Association’s Maggie Awards. That night, NAILS Magazine took home the Maggie Award for Best Special Interest Trade Publication. This April, we got reacquainted with Maggie and brought home TWO of her sisters – one for Best Color Editorial Layout and, our favorite, Most Improved Publication.

When men get around beautiful women, they do strange things, like paint their nails. But NAILS' guys Michael Kirk and Rick Schank wear only professional nail color!

The WPA honors magazines published in the western United States. NAIILS was nominated this year in five categories and competed against hundreds of other magazines, and was judged by other publishing professionals.

As much as these wins are a celebration for the magazine staff, the awards are a testament to our commitment to our readers and our advertisers to keep our magazine the best it can possibly be.

When we redesigned NAILS from top to bottom last fall, we wanted to, as I said then on this very page, “push NAILS farther into the future and lead nail professionals into the next millennium.” We weren’t satisfied simply publishing nail professionals’ favorite magazine; we wanted to keep doing even better. I guess the Maggie Award for Most Improved Publication means we’ve done a pretty good job of that.

On behalf of the entire NAILS staff, we dedicate Maggie and Her Sisters to you.